Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), sometimes referred to as a concussion, mild brain injury, mild head injury (MHI), or minor head trauma, is the most common type of traumatic brain injury. The rate at which mTBI occurs is not accurately known, which may be due to the subjective nature of its detection and diagnosis, and the possibility that occurrences of mTBI are being under-reported. Some estimates suggest that mTBI occurs in more than six (6) per one thousand (1,000) people per year. Common causes of concussions are sports injuries, bicycle accidents, car accidents and falls. Concussions caused by sports injuries and bicycle injuries most commonly occur in children and young adults, and those caused by car accidents and falls most commonly occur in adults and the elderly.
Part of the problem of the diagnosis of mTBI is that there are little differences between the diagnostic criteria and the manifest symptoms. mTBI implies decreased cognitive function and denotes change in personality and behaviors that are uncharacteristic of the person who has sustained an mTBI. While there are known systems and methods for identifying or measuring cognitive function in a subject, there are currently no devices and methods that objectively measure, on a near real-time basis in the field (e.g., the playing field, battlefield, site of an automobile accident, etc.), the likelihood of altered brain reflexes and/or physiology associated with a neurological condition within a subject.